If you shoot on Sony and you want to get the best image quality out of your camera, your choice is SLOG 3. But as usual guys, there is a ton of nuances. So today, I'mma break it down for you. So this is the ultimate SLOG 3 guide. Let's go. Log format was invented to basically squeeze a pretty big dynamic range of your camera into a pretty small dynamic range of the container that we can record our videos in. And that is why the log video is not contrasty and saturated, but later on you can definitely bring it back and make it look as good as possible. I've already made a pretty popular SLO 3 workflow tutorial about 5 years ago, but nowadays we have new functions and features of your Sony cameras and this video will be much more in-depth. Why would you use SLOG 3 with your Sony camera? Because only in Slo 3. Cinei, you get the most dynamic range if you use the native ISO in Slo 3 of your camera. For example, here we have 800 on the FX30 and the Sony ZV1 which is filming me right now. It has 640 as the native ISO in SLOG 3. It means that if you use any other picture profile, your dynamic range will be shrinkedked and you won't get the best performance of your camera in the dynamic range department. And one more important note is that the raw video does not extend the dynamic range. It'll be exactly the same in the SLOG 3S Gamma 3 Cine and in RAW video. What RAW does is it allows you to change the white balance after the fact. But if you set your white balance correctly while shooting in SLOG 3 and not in RAW, you'll have pretty nice results and you can even tweak the white balance a lot in post. But also RAW disables the in camera noise reduction which can be pretty aggressive and you can reduce this noise with neat video for example in post and get slightly better results. One of my favorite YouTubers, Gerald Undone, also did multiple tests on the color reproduction in each and every picture profile. And he found out that the SLO 3 is the most color accurate picture profile. It has the most accurate colors overall. And here is my own comparison of the HLG with SLOG 3 and the PPF. And you can tell the difference in the color reproduction and especially skin tone. So I would say that yes, SLOG 3 is definitely the best in terms of the color from your Sony cameras. Also, at higher ISO values, SLOG 3 is cleaner than HLG or PP off, especially if you use the correct exposure. And it is crucial to expose to the right with SLOG 3. We'll talk about it in a second, but right now, you can see the difference in different ISO values of the SLOG 3 compared to picture profile off and HLG. And to my eye, the results are very obvious. The next advantage of SLOG 3 is of course the flexibility in post. So you have captured the best dynamic range, the biggest dynamic range of your camera and then in post you can decide do you want to keep the highlights or the shadows or both. But for example, if you were to shoot in PP off, you would have to decide beforehand should you protect the highlights or the shadows. In SLO 3, you can decide it in post and keep both highlights and shadows in the shot exposed correctly. And you can also manipulate the color a lot, especially if you have the 10- bit codec. I do not suggest using SLO 3 with 8-bit cameras only. And for 8-bit cameras, I would suggest using ASL 2. And I have a huge tutorial about the 8-bit cameras and ASL 2 workflow. So you can check this video in the description below. And one more important thing guys, bit depth, 8 bit and 10 bit as well as the color subsampling like 444, 4:22, 4 to 0, they do not have any impact on the dynamic range of your camera. It doesn't matter in which format you shoot. Dynamic range does not depend on those numbers. In modern Sony cinema cameras like the Sony FX30, we have three ways of engaging the log shooting mode. First of all, we have the lock shooting mode itself. We can enable flexible ISO or CI mode. And we also have the traditional picture profile mode. So you pick the picture profile from 1 to 10. For example, it's just the container and then you pick SLO 3 as gamma 3 CI inside of the container. And that's basically it. And here's the comparison of the flexible ISO, Cinei, and PP10, which could be actually any picture profile just set to SLO 3S gamma 3 Cinei. And as you can tell, guys, we have exactly the same exposure, dynamic range, everything is exactly the same. And the only difference is in the details because in the picture profile, I didn't set the details to minus 7. It was set to zero. And that is why we have a bit more sharpening from the camera itself. But if I were to set it to minus 7 in the detail department in the picture profile, it would look exactly the same. And also, if you use picture profiles, you can set different settings and make the image look a bit different for your likings. And here is another comparison. My Sony ZV1 in flexible ISO mode versus the PP10. And the same story here. We have only the difference in the sharpening department, in the detail department. And basically those two images are exactly the same. Even if you see like super slight deviations in the lightness of the image or the saturation, those are negligible. So basically, Cinei, flexible ISO and PP, if you set the SLA 3S 3C are exactly the same. So Cinei is not some magic mode. It's like exactly the same as the flexible ISO. And I would prefer using the flexible ISO for very particular reasons which I'll be sharing right now. So in Cinei, you are stuck to 800 and 2500 ISO if you use Sony FX30 for the native ISOs and you cannot use any other ISO values. It's pretty cool, but it's not really worth it because ASL 3 needs to be exposed correctly or overexposed slightly quote unquote. Not really overexposing, but exposing to the right as high as possible. So the image should be pretty bright and later on in post you have to lower the exposure and suppress the noise. That's the key point of shooting pretty clean and nicer looking log footage on any camera, not only in SLOG 3. And yes, guys, log footage does have some noise, especially ungraded log footage. And even graded log footage can have some noise in it because if you have a pretty poorly lit environment and you didn't have enough lights and your ISO value was already pretty high and you didn't have any faster lens, for example, and you didn't expose log footage correctly, you will have some noise in the image. It's fine. It's okay. Any footage can be noisy if you have pretty badly lit environment. Just keep that in mind, guys. But also, you can use some post-processing and noise reduction like neat video or in the Vinci Resolve or even some AI tools to reduce the noise if you cannot live with the noise in your image. But guys, just keep in mind that any image should have certain amount of noise and that it is normal to have noise. In films, you have a lot of noise because they are shot on film and in film you have a ton of grain and noise. Just don't overestimate the importance of the noise-free image guys. And here is the example of underexposed log footage. So this is how you shouldn't do it because we have a lot of information in the lower part of the waveform closer to zero and you will have to raise this exposure in post and get more noise. But if you expose correctly, your shadows should be above 25 ideally and then you'll lower the exposure in post and get super clean shadows. And because of this, exposed to the right rule, I do prefer the flexible ISO because when you use Cine EI, you are stuck to 800 and 2500 on the FX30 and 640 and 12,800 on the ZV1 and you cannot go past those numbers. But if you need to expose higher, if your aperture is already open, if you cannot move the shutter speed, if you don't have extra lights in in the scene, anyways, you need to expose higher, you need to expose more to the right. And that is why you can raise the ISO inflexible ISO and get cleaner images. For example, right here you can see how I exposed at 12,800 with the FX30. And this camera has the base ISO of 2500 as the second native ISO, but still I was getting better results than in the Cine EI mode because I was exposing higher or more to the right. The only thing you need to remember when using flexible ISO is your native ISOs. And don't use the numbers that are close to native ISOs. for example, I don't have to use 10,000 ISO on the ZV1 when I can go to 12,800. And I would go to 3200 ISO, for example, on the ZV1. And then I would switch to the second native ISO manually. And this makes a lot of sense. But then if I need to go higher than 12,800, I would go to up to 100,000 ISO if I need to to expose correctly and to get better results. Here is one more example of underexposed luck and properly exposed luck. Even though we were having huge ISO numbers like 200,000 ISO, but still we get better results. It happens because your camera sees very low exposure and it tries to apply a lot of noise reduction. But when you raise the ISO, you raise the exposure. Camera understands that it doesn't have to correct it with noise reduction a lot and you get much cleaner results. The easiest way to expose correctly or to the right with SLO 3 is to use a lot for minus 2 EV. So the lot will be kind of tricking your eyes and you'll be exposing higher by two stops and your eyes will see a normally exposed image. And for the last five years I've been using the lot by Alistair Chapman. It is free and I have a link down below. Huge shout out to Alistister. He's a great guy. And basically this lot resolves the problem of exposing correctly just by eye. But we have several different tools which I'll explain in a second. And also guys don't forget that with the lot applied it is much easier to set your white balance correctly as well. And I also use this lot for post-processing, but you don't have to. This lot is just great for exposing correctly in camera. Most modern Sony cameras these days have an ability to import the lot into camera, and I highly recommend you do so. But if your camera doesn't support this feature, just purchase an on camera monitor, and I've been using, for example, my Sony A7S3 with a monitor all times with this Alistister Chapman LUS and had pretty nice results. There is one more function in Sony cameras, and it's so misleading. It is called gamma display assist. When you enable this function, the image becomes contrasty and saturated. But in this mode, you underexpose like crazy because on the display you can see that your highlights are blown out, super overexposed when in the reality you have a lot of headroom. And that is why you get pretty uh low exposure in your shots and a lot of noise in the shadows as well. That is why guys never use the gamma display assist and always use the lot for minus2 EV or minus two stops by Alistister Chapman for your exposure. If your camera doesn't support lots, once again, just use the on camera monitor and import the lot to the monitor itself. There is also a function embed lot to clip. Basically, it bakes in the look of the lot to the video file itself. But in my experience, it's not the best way of using the SLO 3 workflow. And I would much rather have the clean SLO 3 footage and then apply the lot in post. And one of the biggest misleading pieces of advice that I hear all the time about the SLOG 3 is that your exposure meter should always show like plus 1.7 or plus two stops. No guys, the thing is that the exposure meter, it measures the whole entire frame if you pick the exposure metering like wide and this is a relative number because all the time you'll be having different scenes, different lighting, different amount of white in the scene, etc. Just imagine you're shooting in a theater and on the stage you have one person, you have a pretty white shot and this person is lit with a spotlight, pretty bright one and the background is complete darkness. What would you see on the Xanometer? Yes, guys, minus two. And if you try to put it to plus 2e, you'll have completely blown out skin tones. That is why guys don't even look at it. It's a reference number and it will mislead you in some situations. And I would much rather prefer using zebras. Zebra is your best friend when you shoot in SLOG because it is precise and you can really trust it. I keep the zebras on all the time and mainly I use two zebra values 95 when I expose for the sky. So I need to retain the clouds for example when they are lit by the sun. I'll expose as bright as possible until I see the zebra and then I'll lower the exposure just a little bit so the zebra is not appearing anymore. And the second value I use is 75 for the skin tone. I'll expose my brightest part of the face in the way that it is bright, but then I can see the zebra at 75 and I lower it down just a little bit. So my skin tone is around 70 to 75, at least for the white skin like I have right here. And if you use an on camera monitor, you can also use the false color tool which will show you the visual representation of your exposure or you can also use the waveform tool, but it's not as precise. There is one more pretty interesting factor when you use zebras. For example, when you use non-native ISOs, especially the lower numbers, when you go lower than the native ISO in SLO 3, you'll see the lines above and below the ISO value. It means that the dynamic range has been shrunk and then you have your clipping point at a lower IRV value. And that is why you won't see zebras if you use lower ISO values until, for example, you go lower in the zebra value to about 7075. So this means that your clipping point has now shifted. And all in all, when you use non-native ISOs, you kind of shift the dynamic range a little bit. For example, if you have lower ISO values, you'll have more dynamic range in the shadows. And when you have higher ISO values, you'll have slightly more dynamic range in the highlights, but lower in the shadows. It doesn't really make sense. It's counterintuitive a little bit, but just guys, keep it in mind. If you use the native ISO and the ND filter, like this one, for example, you'll be just fine. Just try not to use the lower values of the ISOs with the bars on top and bottom. And if you use the higher ISO values, you can definitely use those to expose correctly. As I've been explaining before, correct exposure, ETR, is much more important than using the native ISO. There is one more built-in tool which is called histogram, but it's super small in Sony cameras and it's not very responsive, let me say. So, you don't understand a lot of things when you look at the histogram. The only thing that you can definitely tell when you look at it is when you overexpose and the right part of the histogram hits the ceiling, let me say, of the histogram itself. I don't use it. I don't really trust it. I trust the zebra, my eyes, and my minus 2 EV lot. But what about the low light? You cannot use SLO 3 for low light. And I've been hearing those thoughts from different people for more than 5 years, guys. And I've been doing and filming in SLOG 3 in low light at night with Slo 3 at all times and had pretty brilliant results. Once again, here's the comparison. PP off HLG and SLOG 3 all exposed correctly. And as you can tell, guys, SLOG 3 looks much more clean when you expose correctly, as I've been explaining throughout this video. So, when you have your exposure set correctly, when you expose as bright as possible, even if you use like 100,000 ISO on your Sony FX3, for example, you still have cleaner image than if you were using the PP off, for example, like at 10,000 ISO compared to 100,000 ISO on the FX3. It's just the way the log works. The higher the exposure, the cleaner the shadows. And then you can see the comparison and tell that the SLO 3 is actually looking cleaner than the PPF because it's using a lot of noise reduction. Once again guys, like a mantra, if you are in a low light situation, don't stick to the second native ISO. Don't be afraid to raise up the ISO value. You'll have better results. And one more thing guys, after watching this video, you might be really inspired to go and shoot your client shoot in SLOG 3, but please don't do this. First do some tests indoors, outdoors, in your backyard and just compare the footage yourself. Expose it correctly, underexpose it as well. Understand how to work with zebra, how to expose the skin, how to expose the sky, etc. First, you do the test, then you go for a client shoot. You have to double check everything yourself and understand that it's easier than it seems to be. And finally, guys, you need to understand how to color grade SLOG 3. And here I have a full in-depth tutorial on color grading as lock 3 step by step. So you can check this video next and understand each and every nuance of it because this video has been pretty long. And if you did enjoy it, smash the like and subscribe buttons and hit the notifications bell. See you right here, guys. Take care. Bye.